Books as carriers of disease

To the Editor: The experience described by Jones on books as carriers of disease in a recent issue of the Journal,1 following Ferson's article in the Christmas issue,2 reminded me of my experience in about 1933 at the Coast Hospital (now Prince Henry Hospital) at Little Bay, Sydney.

My mother was a medical resident at the Coast, which was the infectious diseases hospital for NSW. She developed acute diphtheria and was admitted. I (aged five) and my sister had been immunised and were not sick. However, we were throat swabbed, and the swabs were positive for Corynebacterium diphtheriae. We spent three weeks in the hospital with no treatment until we returned negative throat swabs. While waiting to be admitted to the "blocks", we saw children with shaven heads through glass doors, and I've always assumed they were the ones with scarlet fever, as did Jones.1

I was given The Anzac book, on Gallipoli, to browse through. This is now a collector's item and very valuable. Then, much to my chagrin, I was not allowed to take it home.

Later, in 1953, I was to return to my old ward as a resident medical officer, although I was never to find out what happened to all those books!